When the 2019 class of doctors, nurses and paramedics graduated, they knew working would present some challenges.In Melbourne, we meet four graduates to find out what it has been like fighting COVID-19 in their first job out of university.Beth Mazzarella studied nursing and midwifery at La Trobe University, graduating at the end of 2019.
"My partner and I had a few conversations about whether it was safe for me to come home because none of them work in the health industry," she said. "I had a bit of a scare, where I was working with someone that was found to be positive when we didn't expect it," she said.Now in the maternity ward, COVID-19 is presenting different challenges for her patients, limiting the number of support people they can have with them in hospital.
Dr Maclean started as an intern in the hospital's emergency department on January 6, 2020, after graduating in medicine at Monash University at the end of last year."It has been a different year than I expected, but everyone has been very supportive," Dr Maclean said.Patrick Maclean graduated from medicine at Monash University at the end of 2019.
"The first couple of months I was just glued to the latest research and was fascinated by all the developments," he said.
Graduate medics end up working in the health sector. What sorcery is this?